Media competition, bias, and suppressed information

Here is an interesting paper written by Jeremy Burke, a student at Duke University.

The basic premise of the paper is that as competition increases and people have the ability to receive news from a variety of news sources, news sources have been increasingly forced to focus on bottom line pressures vs reporting "news".  "We don't ask 'why' -- or 'why not' as much as we should" notes one staff writer.

Because in order to maintain the media outlet's "reputation", they may be likely to suppress the information that is revealed.  Meanwhile, the emergence of imperfectly informced sources of news, such as blogs, can decrease incentives of traditional media outlets to provide information, however they may overall be good for society with information is being suppressed by the traditional media.

One great quote begins the paper:

"I am completely exasperated by this approach to news. The idea seems to be that we go out and report but when it comes time to write we turn our brains off and repeat the spin from both sides.  God forbid we should attempt to fairly assess what we see with our own eyes. "Balanced" is not fair, it's just an easy way to avoid real reporting and shirking our responsibility to inform readers." Ken Silverstein, the LA Times.

The paper is a bit clunky for those of us who are not economists, but it's interesting nontheless.  I think we've all seen this inability to actually inform readers of the realities when it comes to dog bites, abuse and breed specific laws has become increasingly evident.  The sooner we can get public officials, and the public at large, to realize that the media is not living up to its responsibilities to accurately tell stories, the better off we'll all be.

Here's the complete paper. 

Hat Tip:  Marginal Revolution

Comments

[Becky]

This is really hefty, Brent, and I thank you for tackling it. It is very very serious and it is very very grim. And it is unfortunate that the people who really need this info will never receive/ get/ search for it.

So, how do we go about demanding that the Media live up to its responsibilities and HOW do we get the GP and our officials to CARE enough to require this??

[KCK Kills Dogs]

I was recently watching a show (a rerun) where Al Gore was a guest. He was discussing the media - how it's changed from hard hitting investigative reporting to yellow journalism and making profits. It was interesting that a political type publicly acknowledged the stance of the media, that all of us already know about.

Al Gore went into more detail than just that one line; but every politician that relies on media reports to pass insanely crappy legislation should've watched that segment (regardless of party affiliation).

[Brent]

KCK,

I bought Al Gore's book "An Assault on Reason" - which he highlights a lot of the problems with how the media portray's things in giving us factual information so we can actually make up our own minds on things. I've only just read the first chapter or 2, but it's an interesting read and he certainly has the same perspective I do on it.

As someone who has a Journalism degree from one of this country's top Journalism programs, it pains me to see what the industry has become. While there are certainly great writers out there who strive to do things the right way, even some of those I've talked to bemoan being short staffed which keeps them from doing things the right way all the time.

Becky, I have no idea how to solve this problem. None. Trying to figure it out. I'm making a trip to my alma mater after the first of the year to get their perspective on it.